Thursday, February 19, 2009

Its Thursday and you know what that means, a new post about making money! If you missed my previous posts, then check them out here and here. I discuss in detail how to get paid to complete offers, as well as how to get cash back for online purchases.

There are so many different online programs available from helping you find discounts on travel to making sure your identity stays secure. Most of these programs typically bill you a monthly fee to access all the information and resources on their site. To get their site noticed they usually advertise free 1 month trials or sometimes a $1 fee for the first month. They also grab your attention with additional incentives such as free gift cards and products just for trying out their program. The great part is you can ALWAYS cancel within the trial period and still get a FREE gift card or other reward they may be offering.

Read my step by step instructions over here before you start signing up for the offers listed below.

How to Snag FREE Gift Cards:

Most trial offers are $1 or free for the first month.

Your free gift card for using the trial membership will not immediately be mailed upon signing up.

Wait a few days after signing up and you will get a email from them with directions and a link to sign up for the free gift card.

Follow the detailed instructions in the email to snag your free gift card!

Cancel your membership a few days before your first months trial ends. That way your gift card will have time to process.

When you call to cancel your membership the sales reps will be very pushy, so be aware. However, to avoid their sales pitch just repeat "I just want to cancel".

Make sure you get a cancellation number and the name of the person your talking with. Write it down and keep it in case you have any problems with your cancellation.

If for some reason you didn't cancel in time or didn't cancel correctly and you get charged, call them up and they will most likely refund the amount for you anyway.

147 comments:

Lisa
said...

Thanks for the tip. I signed up to for Privacy Guard to get the $30 Staples gift card. (good way to stock up on printer paper for all those coupons I've been printing! lol)After I see how this one goes, then I'll try some of the others. Please post more things like these.

Hi, just wanted to let you know that I received my gift cards.I got a $30 staples, 2-$10 gift cards for lowes and 2-$10 gc for blockbuster.Thanks I am still waiting on the others to come.I wish there where more like that to do-LOL.Thanks again.

I have been doing the "free gift card" deals for years. Really enjoy the "free" money! Last summer on vacation, these types of deals earned us a free night at a hotel and a free meal up to $25. We have also earned gift cards for Lowe's that we used for my nephew's wedding gift (a combination of several cards). Being organized is the key as they bank on you forgetting to cancel within the first 30 days. I have a standard letter saved on the computer and as soon as the membership info comes, I call up the letter, change the info to that deal, and print out 2 copies (one to send and one for my file). I address the envelope and put the date to send the cancellation letter out. I have not had any problems and have really enjoyed the free gifts.

I received my Lowes $20 gift card. I called to cancel and they offered to extend my free trial until May 3 and give me free gas and groceries! How could I pass that up? I am gonna cancel anyway, so why not get more free stuff out if it??? lol

After siging up you'll need to wait a few days (possibly a little more)and you will get a email from them with directions and a link to sign up for the free gift card.

Follow the detailed instructions in the email to snag your gift card!

Make sure to Cancel your membership a few days before your first months trial ends. That way your gift card will have time to process. You may be like some of my readers, though, and get your gift card before your trial periods even over!:)

Just curious if anyone is worried about putting in your credit card/debit card information on these sites? Are you concerned that they will have this on file and could possibly charge you anyways? I have had problems in the past with our car company charging our account when they were specifically told not to. Just being cautious!

If you are ever worried about a secure checkout, a lot of credit card companies now offer virtual numbers. A virtual number basically means a one time use number that can be used instead of your "real" credit card number.

I've signed up for the Privacy Guard to get the staples gift card..But i'm wondering what the confirmation email looks like..I'm completely new to this, and found your site through a friend I just met at my new college.

After you sign up wait a few days and you'll get a confirmation email with your membership information. A few days after that you'll receive another email with a link to snag your FREE gift card. Just follow the directions in the email and your FREE gift card will be on its way!:)

Call or email the customer service number and explain that you think you may have deleted the email they sent about getting the gift card. They'll probably just be able to send you a new one via email.

HI, I have called to cancel all five of mine. I still don't have gift cards for 2 of them yet. but one I did cancel already and 2 I have to call back tues. next wk to cancel. complete homes ask me to keep my free membership until may 8th and see me a extra $100 in food and gas. I have to send them a receipt and they will mail me a check back.They other one(buyers advantage) ask me to keep the trial until april 4th.

OH MY GOSH!!!! This totally worked..not that I doubted your expertice I just figured I would mess it up somehow. I got all my cards today exactly 10 days from the day I signed up. I got $20 in gas cards so maybe the person who only got $10 may want to check into that. I signed up for the $25 target card and free Papa John's pizza too, plus we used the pizza card we got a free trial to entertainment weekly and another $10 instant papa johns card. I totally LOVE this. You are the absolute best. Thank you!

I received the additional coupons for free gas and groceries. What a scam! You have to have an active membership in order to use them for Complete Home. Even though they extended my membership to May, I can only use one of the certificates for $25 unless I extend the membership by paying the monthly fee. No thanks........not worth it.

I have yet to receive any gift cards in the mail. I have canceled the one that had to be canceled within 7 days (that may have been the bakeware one from a different site). I am starting to get worried.

I got my $10 Target, two $10 BB and $30 Staples cards today! Thanks! What a fun mail day. Do I need to wait until I spend them to cancel my membership or can I cancel the memberships now and use the cards later?

Good luck with your move! Those poor movers ... I can't imagine having to move your storage! lol :)

I received the $30 Staples, 2 $10 BB, 2 $10 Exxon today, I signed up 3/11. Got the Papa Johns pizza last week & just signed up for the $10 & $25 Target cards. Thank you for these offers! You are awesome!!!

I signed up for Nicole's Advantage over 6 days ago, and have yet to receive an email to claim the target gift card. Has anyone got their gift card & when did you get your confirmation email to claim the gift card? Thanks!

Sorry for the confusion. Nicoles Saving Advantage is a little different then the other gift card trial offers. You will actually receive a form in the mail (not your email) about a week after signing up... it could take a little longer. Once you send it back it will take 1 week from the time they receive it to mail out the gift card.

I found a new one to ad that 1800flowers.com sent me via email. Here's the link: https://www.greatfunsite.com/global/scripts/promo.asp?ref=GF23800FLOL0004&cm_mmc=email-_-email-_-20090331livewella-_-lwfeatures&cm_em=

Love Hip2Save! I just signed up for several gift card offers, all of which I think are under Trilegent. Unfortunately, I didn't think to google the company until After I'd signed up for 4 offers.

I discovered that there was a gigantic class action lawsuit against the company that finished last year, with Trilegent as the loser. Hundreds of thousands of people were being charged money repeatedly for programs that they (a) claimed they never signed up for; (b) signed up for but canceled; and (c) signed up for without knowing it (ie: received something looking like a rebate check in the mail; cashing it automatically enrolled them in some kind of program that charges fees).

I realize that we are all playing fully by the rules, reading all the fine print, and canceling trials within the specified time limits. But some stories I read online are from people who claim that they did exactly that. This is not to say that we are going to be scammed - this is just to say that hundreds of thousands of people have been scammed by this company during this decade, and the courts have confirmed it.

We should all monitor our credit card statements very carefully from here on out. And if anyone finds something fishy, holler about it so we can check if we're affected. If I had done my background reading first, I would not have signed up for any of these, but it's too late now. Be vigilant, folks! And take good care :)

Just click on "terms and Conditions" at the bottom of most of the sites. Scroll through and you should see a number to call to cancel. If you still can't find the number, then let me know what trial offer it is and I will give you the number.

i received my 2 $10 exxon gas cards, and my 2 $10 lowes gift cards today, i signed up for them on march 25th!! :))I am going to sign up for the $10 and $20 target gift cards, as well as the $20 blockbuster gift cards, thank you so much for these!!!

I signed up for the LiveWell offer with the Target gift card-I hdn't received an e-mail after a couple of days so I called customer service, they said I would receive a post card in the mail to fill out and return. I'm wondering if this will cut it close on cancelling within 30 days? Has anybody else received their postcard? How long did it take? I just had a bad experience with Google Money Tree, to the tune of 72.21. I'm kind of wary now.

That's strange. I assumed you would receive the instructions via email.

I would call them back because the offers states on the sign up page, "Plus, claiming your $20 Target GiftCard is easy. Follow the directions in the email we will send you at the beginning of your free one-month trial to get your $20 Target GiftCard. It's that simple, and there is no further obligation to continue!"

You might have talked to someone that gave you the wrong info. I would explain that on the sign up page it states the gift card instructions are suppose to be sent via email. Let us know what they say, if you get a chance.

HELP I signed out for that FREE bakeware thing...and I don't know why I got confused with all the offers...and well I just realized it was 7 days before I needed to cancel-and I didn't. It been 10 days...I wonder if they are going to be nice about it...ARGH Its still early to call. I am going to be so mad if I have to pay $20 for a muffin pan :(

Danielle,I have forgotten to do this in the past for other offers. Most of the time I call and just let them know that time got the best of me and I really meant to cancel during the trial period. On more then one occasion that have removed the charge from my card, so they may do that for you too! Let us know if you get a chance.

Okay I am NOT a happy camper this morning...GRRRR. I called the phone number listed on EasyBakeware.com site...and well its a recording and no one has answered ALL morning, it says to email them for a proper response.

HA-So I did, and what was their response, call Home Savings MAll, to cancel. WHAT??? So I called them, they acted like I had 80 heads of course, they are NOT the same company (or are they??). So while I was on the phone with them, since I already cancelled with them last week...I figured I may as well ask about my GC I never received. She said I have to wait for a postcard in the mail, fill it out and send it back.

These are all not sounding good to me right now. I am regreting giving my info out now :( I am usually very smart about this stuff, but I was like a kid in a candy store when I saw all those FREE gifts cards-too good to be true?? HELP

Danielle,I'm so sorry for all the confusion. When you sign up for the $1 shipping for the Burnless Bakeware you are automatically in enrolled in a free 7 day trial with a company. If you signed up for the 7 day trial for Home Savings Mall, then you'll want to call and cancel before the trial is up. Then you will end up ONLY paying $1 for the Burnless Bakeware.

Home Savings Mall also offers a $25 Walmart gift card when you sign up and stay past the trial. That's probably what they're talking about. If you canceled the trial, though, then your fine and you should still receive your bakeware.

Hi- I signed up for all of these offers on 4/8, and besides the "welcome" emails that were sent just moments after I clicked "sign up"... I have not received ANY other emails!From what I've read, it sounds like everyone else is getting them within a day or two... what should I do? I'm starting to worry about the 30 day time frame now, considering I haven't even filled out info to get my GCs yet... Thanks for your help!!

I just signed up for all 5 offers today too. Now you are getting me all worried that you haven't gotten any other emails about the gift cards... hmmm..... Were we supposed to check mark something saying we wanted the giftcards?

I wouldn't do these...all I have gotten is ALOT of running around with one company, being a different company. Now I gave my credit card out to all these companies like an idiot. I call to cancel, then they tell me I have the wrong company. Then I find the right one, I think...and I ask about the gift cards and they say I will get a postcard in the mail first...what the heck?? I don't know, if its too good to be true, it probably is.

I did these deals and got my gift cards except for the livewell offer-I never got my welcome e-mail or gift card redemption. I called them Friday and they said I would be e-mailed by monday which I got a welcome e-mail but still no gift card e-mail-I may have to call again. But anyway just wanted to let you know I did a post on this on my blog and linked your posts you can see it at http://thriftyminnesotamama.blogspot.comor directly at http://thriftyminnesotamama.blogspot.com/2009/04/make-money-completing-offers.html

Alright to answer all the questions-You do NOT need to check a box or anything to snag the gift cards. After signing up for the offer you'll receive a welcome email (this will NOT have your gift card info in it), wait up to another 5-7 days to receive an email with the info on receiving your gift card. You will then just need to follow those directions and your gift card will be processed.

These deals DO work. You just need to follow the directions exactly and remember to cancel before your trial ends.

I'm sorry some of you are having problems. I know these offers can be a bit confusing when starting out.

I never got the Livewell email either but when I signed up for Livewell I had another offer pop up for Traveler's Advantage that was a $20 Exxon Giftcard. I received that in the mail yesterday! I am definitely going to sign up for the other offers. Thanks so much!

Nicole, when did you sign up with Livewell. I signed up April 1st, and I still havent gotten any email from them regarding the GC. Also I have not received any email from CleverHouse regarding the BlockBuster GC. I did receive emails from Privacy Guard, Buyers, and CompleteHome. Should I be calling CleverHouse? Anyone else have problems with them? Livewell on the other hand seems like they are taking their time. Thanks in advance.

I signed up for 4 offers & all 4 gift cards arrived before I hit the 3rd week of the trial period. Now I'm going to cancel all 4 memberships AND I'm going to read my credit card statement very carefully every month from here on out to make sure no funny business appears from Trilegent!

I have a question. I signed up for 3 deals. the buyers advantage, privacy guard and mygiftcards. Out of the 3 I have received the $30 from privacy guard. I have cancelled all 3.OK, my question is, I did the privacy guard 2nd and it's the only one I have gotten. Has this happened where you don't get the gc's in the order that you did the offers?

I got the email to get the gc's on 4/2, about a week after I signed up for the offers. I got the privacy guard gc on 4/18 and nothing since. The mygiftcards was the boca java (just about the BEST coffee! too bad it is so expensive) I didn't receive anything from them (emails) at all. My dates for cancellation were 4/25 for Buyers and 4/26 for Privacy.

I signed up for all 5 of these offers on 4-29...thought that it would be easier to do them all at once and cancel all at once. I got all 5 gift cards e-mail today and filled out the info...so now i just wait and see which cards I get...I have 30 days to cancel so by 5-27 -- which I have marked on my calender I will cancel all 5. I hope this works. I am so freaking exited about this. I mean it sounds to good to be true but I have been following it's hip to save for the last two months and have not been steered wrong yet!

I am still waiting for the Nicole's Savings gift card, sent in the form on 4/2/09. They are not replying to my emails and when I call their response is it is processing and takes two weeks (it's been a month now). Has anyone received their gift card from Nicole's , or getting the same response as I am?

i got a paper in the mail today. it is for $25 walmart gift card registration form. on it it says membership number required. the only info says mail back to po box 5152 de plaines il 60017. adaptive marketing llc is not affilliated with walmaft. the corner says 25qLMRFA. any ideas on this?

I was so excited to open my mail today! 70.00 in gift cards...I got three target 10.00....two blockbuster 10.00 and two lowe's 10.00. So I have cancelled two of the offers...they were very pushy trying to trick me into saying ok when they said that I could stay on but I got them to cancel and give me the confirmation numbers and names...now I just have to wait for regular business hours and cancel two more. I still haven't got my 30.00 from staples...is privacy guard a different company than the others? Thanks so much...I can't wait to get use my free gift cards.

I have only one complaint about the "freebie" GC. Nicoles Advantage watchamacallit......They were quick to charge my card, and they NEVER sent me anything regarding the Target GC. I cancelled with them and of course - THEN I got the postcard in the mail about te GC - a full month after I signed up. Beside that - the rest of them came through with no problems!

ok i signed up on may 25th for the privacy guard one. then got the email about the gift card on june 2nd. how long did it take to get the staples gift card? its been 18 days since i signed up and 14 days since i got the email for the card. just wondering...i could really use paper and ink!!! from printing all them coupons lol.

These are such a scam, wish I never got in this mess. I signed up for four of them, all owned by the same Triligent Corp. obviously. 2 cost $1, 1 was free and then the Nicoles advantage for 2.95. Right Away Nicoles advantage charged me, then the Triligent comapny charged me $4.00 instead of $2.00 (they charged me 4 times instead of twice). Now, only five days later and they've charged me another $4! They're gonna overdraft me! On top of that, the one company told me that I had to follow this link to download the form to request the card. I did, I then read in the fineprint of the form that the form had to be mailed out and post marked before 12-31-08! Why would they promise you a gift card on their website in 2009 and then put in fine print "post marked by 2008"? They are scamming on purpose! Has anyone else had this issue with this scamming company? I'm afraid I gave these scammers my cc info and now they can sell it or use it at will,and I ended up with nothing for it. Nicoles Advantage hasn't even gotten back with me yet or acknowledged me. So far, I'm out $10.95 with nothing to show for but my lost identity on the net! sorry for the rambling, I'm just really mad!

I signed up for the walmart $25 gift card through home savings mall and never got a thing. I signed up on April 13, and cancelled May 4. I lost there phone number, can you give it to me? Thanks! I also did the easy bakeware trial April 13, cancelled May 1 and never got anything, I'll call them tomorrow. Now, I've tried the Nicole's Savings Advantage for the Target and Starbucks $25 gift cards, hopefully it works.Also the Everyday Values. Started July 1. Said they'd e-mail me to get my $20 rewards card and have got no email.This is my first time doing these, I really hope that they work.

Becareful of some of the gift cards on the cash grab site. If you keep getting ask to go into trails for a 25 dollar gift card be warned. I did one 25 dollar gift card for a 7day trail for simply you. that was fine but at the end it offered me another 25 $ gift card to answer 3 questions to go into another 25 $ card I did. then I went to complete another one I did it and then low and behold another easy one. Alarms went off I looked it up and low in behold google hit came up scam. I had already done 2 bad ones so far only 4 dollars has come off shoulda been 2. the 2 in question are Deal Max and Value plus. Dealmax is iffy they sent me comp email and I printed out a request form for a selection form sounds fishy 2 me. Hope I dont get ripped anymore these are all 7 day trials by the way. Good luck and read B4 you submit any credit card info.

I meant that it was Value Plus that was iffy DealMax is a complete scam as far as I know. Value Plus has reputably ties has ripped off B4. It could be trying to redeem it's self but for some reason I think I am screwed. Good Luck

Thanks for all the info! I was able to sign up for a lot of gcs today. However, I was wondering about the Blockbuster one. I know its been a while, so I wasn't sure if it would still work. I went over to the site & it said nothing about Blockbuster giftcards. Does anyone know if that one is still working? Thanks!

I got my live well and everyday values cards. Not the gift cards yet. I got the company's canceled with no problems as well took a little work. Hopefully I get my gift cards as well. Love this site. for more ways along with this visit my blog and website at http://moneymaking123.webs.comSee my babies too so cute. Don't get scammed just listen to the good people who go though that for you so you can avoid it. So you can save and make money hassle free.

I got my Everyday Values $20 in American Express cards, Yay! I also got a $10 rebate check for sending in a gas receipt. I did pay the $1 trial plus $11.99 for one month but I got $30! Not too bad. I've never been scammed by these companies yet but I keep very good records and read everything.

Ok Everyday Values is a legit totally They sent me 40 dollars worth of rebates. Also they sent me my form for the 20 dollar gift card 60 dollars. I am reopening My account with them right now. Thanks Great deal

I actually did the target one, which led me to another one through travelers advantage, that got me $20 in exxon gift cards (got in less then 2 weeks). I called to cancel, and the lady told me to stay through my trial period which ends in a little over 2 week. And I was like no thanks. And she said Well if I didn't cancel today, that she would send me out today $50 in gift cards to exxon and another $50 in gift cards for grocereys (did not state where)!! My trial period still has a little over 2 weeks left and I should get the gift cards before the trial period is over!!!! I scored $120 in gift cards during a trial period! SWEETNESS!!!!

It's been a little over a month and I recieved my Live Well Target cards, Privacy Gaurd Staples card, Complete Home checks and the Great Fun checks. I was really discouraged at first since they did over bill my credit card but after all the companies double charged me for some reason, my pre-pay card was maxed out and they could not charge anymore. So i only ended up paying like $2.00 for each.

The Staples gift card was the most exciting since they came right away and never billed me. They were very honest. The Nicoles Savings Advantage on the other hand left much to be desired. They charged me right away, never sent me anything in the mail. When I called them to tell them I'd recieved nothing about the gift cards or welcome package the woman became very snobby and told me that I do not get the cards since I'm on a trial. IF I sign up as a full member THEN I can apply for my cards. Since my card was already maxed, I never got the cards. I'm wondering if I try it again If I'll be able to get the cards?INDYMOMABW

I called to cancel my nicole savings advantage thingy and they told me that they didn't have a record of me at all. That's funny since they sent me a welcome e-mail with a name and password. I am watching my checking account like a hawk. They did tell me that if for some reason I get billed??? that i would have to fax a copy of my bank statement to them to get it taken off. I will never do any of these anymore. It is not worth the stress of it all.

Hi, I have always loved you site! I come on here daily, sometimes more than once a day. I signed up for Privacy Guard about a week ago, and got my $30 Staples gift card today! So, Thanks for all of the great deals you have on your site. I also did the Live Well one, and I received my member info a few days ago. Still waiting for the gift card though! Thanks for all that you do.

I did privacy guard, livewell, and great fun with no problems at all. Nicole's did say that i had to be a member after the trial to get gift card redemption forms. I let them bill the 9.93, got my forms, and after a few weeks, i cancelled before the next billing. Got my two $25 gift cards another week or two afterwards. No problems at all.

I just did Privacy Guard for the second time. I did it 2 weeks ago, the first time, and again last week for my 2nd time. I have gotten so far 4 $10 Target gift cards and, 2 $30 Staples gift cards. I did complete home for the 2nd time also, and now I'm getting 5 $10 Lowes gift cards! Great Christmas Presents!!!

These trial offers are great. i have pulled in over $2000.00 in free cards this year. The best ones I get are through Credit One Bank and Orchard credit cards. The offers come with my statements and are usually $40.00 to $50.00 gift cards for walmart. Great for christmas gifts also.

Also check out http://www.shopittome.com -Sign up FREE- Then for every 10 people you get to sign up - you get to chose a gift card from the list - like Gap, banana republic and starbucks (and many more) Enjoy!

Also, a nice & easy way to earn giftcards is thru swagbucks.com. Instead of using google to search I use swagbucks and have the chance of earning points which in turn, you can redeem for gift cards. Also if you shop thru their website (the have hundreds) of stores listed, you earn points as well. I've already redeemed for on gift card. This is the easiest for me, because I dont really have to put out any money unless I WANT to shop. Here is my referral link if anyone is interested.